Welcome to the family. We’ve saved you a seat.

It only took 6 months for regulars and newcomers alike to love the hand-painted letters right off the meat case. It’s easy to see how it happens. Greeted by the infectious smiles and welcoming demeanor of owners Dana and Dylan Wakefield, you’ll step up, lean in, feel the cool of the glass on your skin while Dana queries you on your tastes. The questions are subtle, friendly, thoughtful and cheery. You don’t need to worry about not recognizing the names of heirloom cuts, Dana is already sorting your answers and matching you with a cut and a cooking technique that will squarely place every other steak you’ve ever tasted at very distant second place. Small but lovely details like a container of homemade tallow or fresh seasonings often make their way into your bag. The Wakefields put the same care into your meal as they do their own.

The shop feels like a family kitchen, bubbling over with laughter and love. The staff moves effortlessly around each other, conversations punctuated by bursts of laughter and shouts across the room.

This is more than a butcher shop. This is a place where people can come to get educated. You can ask about the farmers, and how the animals were raised, what they ate. Dylan and Dana have visited and continue to visit every one. Hang around the store and you can see that next level culinary knife skills at work with great care applied to match demand and how they intend to use the meat. You can watch sausage being made by hand, sandwich meats sliced in front of you. You can see that nothing goes to waste, from beef bones for stock to tallow candles to roasted skins for pets. Connecting with the farmers and farms, bringing back heirloom butchering techniques that all but disappeared in the age of factory farming, paying a fair price to allow for a sustainable life cycle is the key to Pendulum’s philosophy.